Month: May 2013

Doing great today. So happy to have a day off and the albergue I´m in lets you stay all day. We all decided to stay here another night then we all go our separate ways tomorrow.
I think I´m meeting a Czech friend for lunch today and then I´m going back to St James´ grave to pray for everyone. nteresting thing to note: St James is represented 3 ways in Spain — as the apostle, as a pilgrim, and as the moorslayer who aided catholics in reclaiming Spain from the Muslims in the 1100s. The latter incarnation usually shows him horseback with a whip or sword, trampling screaming Arabs. Nice, huh?

I´m here! The last 4km was a breeze and I couldn´t stop crying when I reached the cathedral, I was so relieved, astonished, overjoyed… Plus the guys I´m walking with are such sweeties, there were hugs all around and more weeping — and I mean the guys.

I wish I had words for how I´m feeling today (besides tired). I´m sure you´ll hear more soon, but I wanted you to know that I´m here safely, proudly, and joyfully.

Just a quick celebratory email to say that i´m at the albergue in Monte del Gozo, on a hill overlooking Santiago de Compostella — my desitination for the last 6 weeks.

I couldn´t stop weeping with reliev and happiness when I caught sight of the city as I crested the hill. I think that is why they call it the Mount of Joy.

Today, we walked about 34.4km (you do the math), my longest walk ever in about 10.5 hours, which included stops for food and beer. 🙂 I am so proud of myself. I am so happy. I am really astonished that I made it so far on my own two feet.

Tomorrow morning we´ll walk the remaining 4km to the Cathedral for Mass and we´re hoping that the botafumiero (look it up) will be in use on a Sunday. Then I´ll be in Santiago until Monday or Tuesday when I´ll begin walking the 100km to Finisterre on the Atlantic ocean.

I am thinking of you… I will say a prayer for you tomorrow at Saint James´ grave… and I hope you know how grateful I am for you and all of your support before, during, and after this incredible trip. I love you so, so much.

I´m in Palas del Rei and have a mission to get to Santiago for the 12pm Mass. It will be a push, but I think I can do it. Sunday is the botafumiero day. I am walking with two amercan guys in their 60s (both optometrists and old friends from college) and a german IT guy. They´re super nice and funny. They´re actually the first guys I´ve walked with the whole trip.

I´m in Villafranca del Bierzo. I walked 22 km today! Yay, me! You may note that this is the SECOND Villafranca I´ve been in. All the names are starting to run together for me. The joke with pilgrims is to ask them where they stayed last night (as in the town) and you get this funny, blank look. Ask them where they´re going today and most of them know. A lot of pilgrims (Germans especialy) treat this walk like a race. They give themselves 21 days or something nuts like that and just rush through the whole thing. Not that I have any judgment about it or anything. 🙂 Anyway, most of us know how far we are going but have no idea where we were last night. I actually know that I stayed last night at the Novo Hotel outside of um… yeah. I can´t remember. But it sucked. They should call it the Hotel NoVA. Some dude was talking on his cell phone behind my head until 1am.

I´m in Astorga and laid up with a cold/ear thing. So where do I go? Not an albergue, that´s for sure. I´m in a 4-star hotel overlooking the city. Top floor. It´s gorgeous.

The walk is going well and I´m loving the change of scenery from the flatness of the meseta to the hills of Astorga. I will take a rest day tomorrow (at the hotel, of course) and then head into the mountains the day after. No sense in pushing and compromising my health.

Anyway, I´ve thought of Dad´s offer to drive the Camino a few times with love, so the snazzy hotel was my compromise. 🙂

Today I am feeling particularly lonesome because I´m sick. But I couldn´t have chosen a better town to be in — it´s called Hospital de Orbigo, if you can believe it. There used to be 4 hospitals here for pilgrims. I´ve had a sore throat, a unnerving cough, and ear issues. The hospitaler here at the albergue took pity on me when I arrived at 12 (pretty early for a pilgrim) and gave me a quiet room to nap. When the farmacia opened at 5pm (siesta hours are so strange), I went down there and she was pretty concerned about the ear thing.

I´m in Leon. And before you mistake me for a fast walker, I confess I hopped the bus this morning from Carrion de los Condes, skipping 4-5 days of walking so I can really enjoy Santiago and Finesterre when I finally get there.

We had a TON of rain the other day and now it´s sunny an warm. If you can believe it, I almost prefer the rain as the meseta has no shade.

I talked with a couple from Roseburg on the bus here — small world again!

I wanted everyone to know, that Jen has not lost her ability to spell or punctuate. Since her departure, I have been posting to her blog from emails she has sent to me. She has been using iPads and computers from other countries, so the grammar and such is not quite right in English. At first I thought I might make corrections, but have left them in their original state as I get such a kick out of reading them as-is and thought you might as well.

I also want to pass on her gratitude for all of your support. It means a lot to her and tangentially to me as well. Thank you.

I am walking with Katrin, Marisela, and Muriel (from France) and having a ball. Except when my feet are killing me. I went to a sporting goods store to get poles and at the pharmacy, I bought new inserts for my sneakers. Thinks are much better, and the painkillers dont hurt either. 🙂 The weather was gorgeous today, a stark contrast with the rain and blowing wind yesterday.